Fascinating history with modern parallels

books:


	• The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai John Tayman Scribner, 2007 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fascinating history with modern parallels

"The Colony" was greeted with rave reviews on the U.S. Mainland. Yet, it is not even sold in the National Park Service's bookstore at the settlement site on Molokai. Indeed, the book so upset one of its leading characters, storyteller Makia Malo, that he will not even utter the author's name.

The Amazon reviews hint at the range and breadth of opinion this book has generated; I recommend browsing both the glowing reviews and some of the less favorable 3-star and 1-star reviews. For the New York Times article on the controversy, you can Google this search term: "Book on Leprosy Settlement Draws Fire."

For what it's worth, here is my own brief take:

This is an amazing history, told in impressive detail. In chronicling the story of leprosy on the Hawaiian islands, Tayman even-handedly presents the good and the bad: Both grotesque medical experimentation and heroic service, devastating tragedy and human resilience. The scientific information was interspersed throughout the personal and political stories, making it more easily digestible.

The history of leprosy is not only fascinating in its own right, but it has important parallels today. Tayman briefly mentions the parallel with AIDS, especially in the early years of AIDS when exile was being proposed. I also found it relevant to the current treatment of another shunned group - sex offenders. As with lepers back in the day, policy makers attempt to banish all sex offenders as pariahs despite the fact that, like lepers, only a small minority are dangerous.

The negatives: As other Amazon reviewers have pointed out, the narration is choppy. We learn a lot of facts about a lot of people, but it is hard to keep the characters straight. And the editing is quite poor, something I am seeing a lot of these days. As for Tayman's apparent disrespect or arrogance toward the very people he was trying to honor - you decide.

If you are interested in this topic, Jeff Talarigo's haunting debut novel, The Pearl Diver, provides a good contrast. Although it is fiction, it seems historically accurate and you can contrast the treatment of lepers in Japan, where there seems to have been even more shame and prejudice, with that in Hawaii, where nearly every family had a member who was afflicted.

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"Unclean! Unclean!"

I suppose that the government officials in Hawaii in the 1860s assumed that they were doing the right thing by isolating lepers on an almost uninhabited island. Compared to the biblical era of rags, bells, and calls of "unclean, unclean!", they may have been somewhat correct. What they didn't realize, however, was the human toll living on that island would take on those people. It's actually amazing that so many surivied for a long time, considering the conditions. Of course, eveyone has heard of Father Damien, but the story doesn't begin, or end, with him.There were those who dedicated their lives to helping these people, and were successful , mostly. It's a grim and harrowing tale that this well-written book tells, but it should always remind us that even the best of intentions don't always turn our the way that we had intended them.

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Overall a good read

Overall I liked this book. I think the author largely achieved what he set out to, which was to tell the story of the lepers of Molokai and tell it in a way that could hold your attention throughout the book.

This book was not however perfect. My main criticism was the constant flow of characters coming in/out of the story, especially all the outsiders (IE members of the board of health). I was often left with questions such as "who was this person again?". I must admit I read this somewhat sporadically over a months time, so that could have had some to do with it, but I did find the sheer number of people presented a bit over the top. This criticism aside, I still found it to be an enjoyable read and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this kind of story.

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